August 2008

Why is it when some personal tragedy happens in most peoples lives, they blame God?
I have heard countless of times, “if there is a God how could he let such horrible things happen to people?”

The latest book I read is called “The Shack”

“Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant “The Shack” wrestles with the timeless question, “Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?”

What a powerful book with such peaceful insight.
I am not a religious person and still hold that same status, but among the religious/spiritual references spattered in with living in this present time, colored with humor, I found an answer that offered personal satisfaction.

Yesterday, I sweet-talked my mom into coming over and helping me sort out my house. Last week, I tried to start this project on my own and ended up feeling dizzy and disoriented.

We had a simple meal to give us the strength needed for this job and set out. Four and half-hours later we have countless bags of garbage, and more bags of give away items. Believe it or not we only tackled one room, the girls. Over the last 11 years the girls have collected things, lots of things. Stuff I bought them, they bought, friends and family bought, or just found. Weeding thru the stuff was tedious, but at least we had good conversation. When we finished the place seemed cleaner, but it really did not make much of a dent in the amount of stuff that is still in the room.
We are just a stuff society. We are always collecting stuff. It is not really like we need it, just want it.
On any given trip to Target I can load my cart up with stuff that is an excellent price. Ooooh, look at these earrings, or this is a cute towel set, maybe great price on garden stuff. It is not that I don’t have any earrings or towels, geese I have a closet and jewelry box full of those items and more. So why do we do this?
My theory is because there is nothing else to do that compares to shopping. If you want to go out, yeah there is food, but there is only so much of that you can take in, so what else would fill the void of time. Hiking, biking, club, tennis, baseball, only can do that for a short time, before becoming exhausted. Oh, then there is reading, work, watching TV, listening to music, talking to friends all that stuff is done sitting down. Shopping is something that you can do at your pace; no one puts pressure on you to perform. What other thing can you do that offers the gratification of finding a pair of designer shorts in some unheard of color for only .99 cents?
Thus that sense of gratification just enables us into collecting more and more stuff…
And so the cycle repeats itself.
My room next time mom??

I remember when I would go to one store and pick up most of my groceries for the week.
It was a no brainer, so what if I paid a few cents more at that store, it did not matter to me.
Times have changed. I never thought I would be a coupon -store special shopper. The prices of food have really gone too high for my budget at the major grocery chains. I find myself looking through the grocery store paper mailers finding the best prices, instead of lining the bottom of the birdcages with those mailers. Now, I go to several different grocery stores to buy groceries. I go to Walmart and Target to buy the dry goods and some dairy products, because they are .50-$1.00 cheaper. I feel like I am poor.
Then I read in the newspaper more people are doing this kind of shopping. One of the high-end grocery stores, Whole Foods has been losing their clients because of this trend for thrifty shopping. So good news they have lowered their prices on many items. They have even set up tours with tips for bargain hunting in the store. I’ve got to go and check it out, and see if it is for real. I would not be losing anything cause they always have free samples of fresh fruits, soups and baked goods.
Something has got to give with the prices we consumers have to pay, cause having a small farm in the back yard is kind of impossible.

I was reading a little article the other day in the paper. The picture really fascinated me. As far as the eye could see were people floating in these little rubber tubes. The picture was taken at a spot called Salt Lake also known as the China’s Dead Sea in Dayin County, China’s Sichuan province.

I cut out the picture because it amazed me that so many people could be in one place, so compact together and be happy without drugs or alcohol in their systems. I am not a person that does well in crowds. The older I get, the worst it seems. I see a large mass of people gathered and I walked the opposite way.

Just looking at these Asian families in the water floating, it is a good thing that sharks and tsunamis are not common in the these types of salt lakes, and what about the pee factor, would anyone notice if a thousand people peed in that lake around the same time?

This is not the exact picture that was run in the newspaper, but it kind of gives you a little idea of the what I was looking at.